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Bulawayo Bureau
SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa has reaffirmed his support for Zimbabwe and the ruling Zanu-PF party and has once again called for the immediate lifting of illegal sanctions against the country.

President Ramaphosa was speaking on Friday during a memorial lecture for the late national hero and former President Cde Mugabe.

Kwazulu-Natal ANC organised the memorial lecture to honour the late founding President of Zimbabwe.

President Ramaphosa said South Africa and ANC were not ashamed to stand together with the ruling Zanu-PF party.

He said unity of purpose is what is needed for Africa to progress.

“And it is for this reason that we the ANC will always be on the side of Zanu-PF. We will also be on the side of Zimbabwe and it is for this reason that we are vocally and publicly saying that the sanctions that have been imposed on Zimbabwe must be lifted and must be lifted now without fail,” he said.

“President Mugabe as a pan-Africanist fought for the unity of Africa because he believed we can only triumph when we are united. As the ANC we must tirelessly pursue this vision. We must affirm that we are Africans not merely because of geography, but because we share with the brilliant people from our continent a common desire for dignity, humanity, equality and progress.”

President Ramaphosa said Zanu-PF and the ANC share a special bond and next month he will be meeting President Mnangagwa.

He said the meeting will allow the two revolutionary leaders to discuss challenges affecting their countries with the hope of proffering solutions.

“Zanu-PF and ANC are joined at the hip and the two shall never be separated because we are one revolutionary movement. We attend each other’s conferences, when they have their conference every year they invite us when we have our own conferences we invite them. We often meet, the secretariat meets and the Presidents will soon meet in October. When the former liberation movements meet we will be together,” he said.

President Ramaphosa said South Africa is seriously trying to find solutions to reoccurring xenophobia attacks insisting that South Africans do not hate foreigners.

Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa said he had appointed former Tanzanian and Mozambican presidents Jakaya Kikwete and Joaquim Chissano to investigate the causes of xenophobia in South Africa.